Re: There Are No "Digital Rights"

On Fri, 2003-08-15 at 13:21, Ellis D. Cooper wrote:
> I am annoyed by Linux personnel who claim they have "digital rights". There 
> are no such rights. There are companies who manufacture and market hardware 
> products for the purpose of making money. They have no obligation to 
> provide information for someone to make the hardware work on platforms they 
> deem unprofitable as yet, such as Canon re Linux. Instead of screaming 
> "digital rights" and "digital freedom" in a childish fit of ignorance about 
> the world, such Linux personnel should patiently explain to Canon, say, how 
> they can make more money by releasing the information, e.g., by selling to 
> users of Linux in addition to users of Windows. . . .

Thanks for the post.  I'm going to print this one out to look back at in
five years for a good laugh. 

I guess your outlook will change when you have those "rights" on a piece
a paper approved by whomever you need them approved by to feel you
deserve them.

And I agree with you that the people that want their hardware to run on
free software and believe they do have digital rights and freedoms (or
should have those right and freedoms) shouldn't whine.  What they should
do is speak up, call the hardware manufacturers and demand the technical
specs, support organizations that fight for digital freedom like the FSF
(http://www.fsf.org) or the EFF (http://www.eff.org), call their
congressmen, boycott those products that specs are provided for and
protest those corporations that deny them the digital rights and
freedoms they "think" they should have.  Yes, anything but whine.  But
speaking out and expressing oneself is really only whining when you
don't do anything about it. 

I would argue each of your points, but some of the people here have
already done a little of that for me and I have to go work on some
papers I'm filing concerning this issue.  

Stay tuned.

-- 
Error -- Digital Freedom Denied.
Sorry for the inconvenience.
Sincerely, Canon

http://www.boycottcanon.com